How much is a good amount to pump?

Iam pumping maybe once a day just to get some back up milk just in case I need to go out or run errands. Today I pumped for 20 minutes around 6pm and I only got 2 oz total from both breasts. Is this normal? I remember with my first daughter I was able to pump a lot more than that. I'm wondering if maybe my milk supply went down?

Re: How much is a good amount to pump?

Well no. Do the math. A baby needs to eat between 24 and 32oz a day. 32oz being on the high side of things. So if a baby is eating 10-12 times in a 24hour period of time as they SHOULD BE then 1-3oz per feed gets you there. Now if you really just want to get a stash going I recommend doing it 1st thing in the morning rather than 6pm at night. Because MOST women have more stored up 1st thing in the am and for a lot of women production winds down in the evening. That can all be affected within days by the babies eating habits of course. But for the most part most women have an easier time getting more milk in a shorted period of time 1st thing in the Am. I could pump 4-8oz in 15-20 minutes. And still feed the baby 30 minutes later no problem. And I did that from 5 weeks on so that my DH could feed my son 1 bottle per day in the evening so that I could get a 2hour break at night. So Try 1st thing in the morning! HTH!

Last edited by @llli*djs.mom; November 28th, 2012 at 01:29 AM.
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